Before the espresso machine, there was a ledger. This is the story of our building and the railroad town around it.
The Building
1 Brodhead Street
Our home is one of the oldest commercial buildings in Mazomanie, standing on a street named for the man who put the village on the map. It spent its early life as a bank, and the bones of that work are still everywhere: the arched windows, the tin ceilings, the night depository by the front door, and the original vault, which today holds our little shop instead of the town's savings.
The vault stays open.
Nobody remembers the combination anymore, and honestly, that suits us. The great door hasn't swung shut in years, so everything inside is yours to browse: work from Driftless makers, teas, coffee, and gifts. Visit The Vault →
The bolt work, built to outlast everyone who knew the combination.The day gate, for banking hours.Original pressed tin overhead.The front door says it plainly.The night depository, retired with honors.Open Wed through Mon, 6 AM to 3 PM.
The corner of Brodhead & Hudson, about 1909, and the same corner today. Our block, one century apart.
Same corner, different century.
The postcard view above looks down the very block you park on today. The brick, the rooflines, and the bones of downtown are all still here. Flip the year switch on our homepage and you can stand in 1909 yourself.
Still digging: the documented bank history (build date, bank name, the owners over the years). We're hoping the Mazomanie Historical Society can help us fill this in.
The Village
Mazomanie, a railroad town.
The Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad built the first line across Wisconsin, from Milwaukee to Prairie du Chien. Its chief engineer, Edward H. Brodhead, hired in 1851, chose Mazomanie as a site for fueling, watering, and servicing locomotives. The railroad officially reached the village on June 7, 1856, one year after our building's namesake date, and the street out front still carries his name.
At the height of nineteenth-century railroading there were as many as five side tracks beside the main line here, with an engine house, turntable, and water tower between Brodhead and Cramer Streets. The last Milwaukee Road train passed through on July 6, 1982, and the restored depot down the street remembers all of it.
The depot, a short walk from our door. Listen close.The old lettering still hangs on.The town clock, on a well-earned break.
The marker downtown. Read it once and you look at the whole town differently.
The circus started here.
One of those markers stops people cold. On November 27, 1882, the Ringling Brothers of Baraboo formally started in show business right here in Mazomanie, in Schmitz' Hall, with a modest act called the Ringling Bros. Classic and Comic Concert Co. Two years later they started their own circus. Twenty-three years after that they bought the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth and became the circus kings of the tented show world. The greatest show on earth began a few blocks from where you are standing.
The spirit never left the street. A few doors down at 15 Brodhead, the Rumpus Room still teaches juggling, tightwire, and aerial arts to the next generation. In summer it is not unusual to look up from your coffee and see kids on stilts stroll down the sidewalk. It makes you look twice the first time. After that it becomes one of your favorite things about the block. More on our guide to the area.
With thanks to the Mazomanie Historical Society, whose markers around the village preserve these stories. Go read them all, coffee in hand.
